


Rambling Mind

by Bubbly88Tay



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-09 04:16:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14708924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bubbly88Tay/pseuds/Bubbly88Tay
Summary: The thoughts of a man who maybe wasn't prepared for the events of the day to occur.





	Rambling Mind

**Author's Note:**

> And I had a plan to write a birthday present ...on the day of Jo's birthday. Well, 2 weeks later here it is. Happy belated birthday Jo and thank you for being our whump momma. You're such a fun to person to talk to and you are a terrific person and I am so fortunate to know you!
> 
> Many thanks to Marie for being a wonderful help in terms of looking this puppy over and making sure that everything made sense! She is a tremendous writer and reading her stuff gives me goosebumps. It's an honor for her to look through this. Thank you so much Marie!
> 
> Standard disclaimer applies. I don't own it, maybe soon though. Haha. 
> 
> Enjoy guys!!

His hands were shaking violently, despite his clenched fists shoved deep into his jacket pockets. At this point though, he preferred to keep them there, rather than see the blood coating his hands. No amount of scrubbing had lessened the stains he would see every time he looked down. 

 

It wasn't his blood. No, rather the blood of one of his closest friends. A man who would risk his life for Rufus’s. For Lucy. For  _ anyone _ , with only a moments notice. Most of the time, even less than that. He had done exactly what he had been chosen for. 

 

A bullet that should have been embedded somewhere in Rufus’s own body, was now being cut out of Wyatt's. Another bullet with Lucy’s name on it was being pulled out of Wyatt as well. Rufus was certain that she wasn’t handling the situation well either. 

 

The trio had traveled back to the early 1700’s. Lucy hadn’t been able to figure out exactly what had happened in that moment that had warranted the trip. The mothership had dropped into the time period and had left almost before the lifeboat could pop in itself. The running theory, as their own boots hit the ground, was that another sleeper had been awoken. Or another one had been placed.  

 

Either way, Wyatt had popped his head out of the lifeboat first, scanning the area for any hostiles. Once the area was deemed clear, Wyatt jumped down and then turned and offered a hand to Lucy. 

 

Lucy took the hand. The dress that covered her figure was both modest and a hindrance. She also knew (from experience, unfortunately) that extracating herself from the lifeboat would be a mess of limbs if she did it on her own. Then Wyatt had offered a hand to Rufus, a smirk playing at their lips as Rufus jumped from the lifeboat expertly.

 

They hadn't walked four feet before the shot rang out. 

 

The moment had replayed in Rufus’s mind more times than he really cared to admit. Enough that the events which occurred next were forever seared into his brain. 

 

Rufus felt himself falling forward suddenly, and he could have sworn that it happened  _ after _ the shot had been fired, but Wyatt had promised that it was actually the second shot, the shot that had hit the lifeboat right behind where Lucy had just been standing. 

 

_ If you heard the shot, it wasn’t meant for you.  _ Wyatt had reassured him later on.

 

Lucy had also been shoved to the ground and hadn't seen the events unfold. Or at least that's what she had been telling him.

 

Personally, Rufus envied her for it. He thought she was doing her best to forget it. The man she  loved, taking a bullet for her, was probably not sitting well with her. (There was a certain romantic notion there, but you really had to be into it.)

 

Rufus watched a camouflaged figure fall from just behind the line of trees that marked the end of the clearing. He quickly turned back to Wyatt, who was stumbling backwards towards the lifeboat, his right hand clutching at his chest, clawing at a bright red stain growing and spreading across his shirt. Rufus couldn't move as he watched on in horror as Wyatt’s hand found purchase with the lifeboat and he tried to steady himself with his left. His gun dropped from his grip, forgotten. The gun hit the forest floor, and that was the moment that Rufus was able to spring into action, Lucy still staring from the ground, her chest heaving. 

 

“Wyatt!”

 

Rufus reached the brunette just as his knees gave way and he crumpled into Rufus’s arms. Rufus carefully laid him on the ground, then applies pressure to the wound on Wyatt's chest, trying to call forth any training he had in first aid. 

 

“Lucy! Lucy, I need help!” Rufus cried behind him before looking back down at Wyatt. His mouth was agape, drawing in breaths - breaths that sounded like he was gargling mouthwash. Rufus didn’t want to think about what he was actually breathing around - that would catch in his chest. 

 

Rufus could feel the wound beneath his fingertips bubble with every failed breath, air as well as blood seeping between his fingertips. Wyatt’s eyelids were fluttering his gaze boring into Rufus’s, begging for relief. Rufus couldn't look away, instead he called out for Lucy again as he tried to comfort his friend.

 

Lucy landed beside him, the leaves beneath her knees crinkling under her weight and the lifeboats fairly extensive first aid kit in her hands. “What do we need?” 

 

Her voice was surprisingly strong. It caught Rufus off guard. The last time Wyatt was shot, she made an effort to stay as far away from the blood as possible, but yet here she was. She even began searching for another wound from the second shot.

 

“Uh, grab some plastic and tape, I think he has a punctured lung.” Rufus said, stumbling over his words. 

 

Wyatt was looking at Lucy now, and Rufus looked to Lucy himself. Her eyes were filled with tears that were leaking down her face. As she tore through the first aid kit, Rufus remembered that sometimes bullet wounds had exit wounds that were just as bad, if not worse. 

 

“We need to roll him over-” 

 

“We need to get him home,” Lucy cried as she dropped the first aid kit and reached for a place to grab purchase on Wyatt's body to help tip him. 

 

“We need to stabilize him as much as we can and then we go. There's no way he'd make it otherwise,” Rufus tried to rationalize as he helped roll the man over as well. He felt slightly better when he didn't see another hole in Wyatt's body, but the cry of pain that filled the air as Wyatt was shifted settled a weight on Rufus’s shoulders that only seemed to ground the man. 

 

“I know, Wyatt. We’re trying. Just stay with us, alright man?” Rufus tried comforting again as he rolled Wyatt back onto his back and grabbed one of his clawing hands. He squeezed it tightly before letting it go and grabbing the materials from Lucy, who took over holding Wyatt's hand. 

 

The second growing wound on Wyatt's side caught Rufus’s attention as he began to cut open the material covering Wyatt's chest. He cut the shirt up the center and pulled the two sides apart, revealing Wyatt's blood soaked chest. “Oh my god.”

 

The wound in his chest was bubbling with blood every time Wyatt took a breath.  Rufus could hear a  _ sucking and wheezing sound, too,  _  so he wasted no time and slapped the plastic on to the wound. It immediately did what it was supposed to as Wyatt took a slightly deeper breath and the plastic sucked itself against the wound. Before it had the opportunity to push itself away from the wound, Rufus grabbed tape and began taping three sides of the plastic, leaving the fourth edge open. 

 

The idea behind the treatment, a vacuum, was easy enough for his brain to understand, but Rufus was having a hard time keeping his hands from shaking as he tried treating the wound.

 

Lucy was working with the wound on Wyatt's abdomen. It sat just under his ribs, embedded in his side. Her bare hands were no longer pressed against it, rather multiple pads of gauze. She was taping them to the wound as best as she could, despite the slick surface area she had to work with. She looked up to Rufus and he could see her visibly trembling. That made three of them. Rufus might have laughed if one of his best friends weren’t dying beneath him. Turning back to Wyatt, Rufus realized that he was at a point where there was nothing more he could do except get Wyatt home. Sitting here waiting and praying that he would get better wasn't going to help anyone, least of all, Wyatt. 

 

Wyatt was almost translucent in color, his lips tinted blue and his eyes heavily lidded, but he was watching them and appeared relatively alert. His chest was still heaving, but not as badly as before. “Trap.” His back arched as he his whole body seemed to struggle to say the words. “Its-its a tra-trap.”

 

Rufus was startled to hear the man speak and he felt Lucy stiffen beside him as she squeezed Wyatt's hand, which lay limp at his sides. There was no way in hell that whatever had just occurred was not part of some plot to kill everyone on board the lifeboat. Rufus was unsure what had alerted Wyatt and had given him those few extra seconds that saved Lucy and his own life, but it did nothing to prevent what had happened to Wyatt himself. “I know.”

 

Wyatt smirked up at the pair, a thin trail of blood slowly trailing down his chin. Lucy leaned over Wyatt and temporarily blocked Rufus’s view of his ailing friend. 

 

Lucy was whispering quietly to the man, and Rufus could just make out her words over the sounds of Wyatt's gasping. The only other sounds in the forest were the wind blowing through the autumn leaves and the sounds of birds far off. “It's going to be alright, you hear me Wyatt. Promise me you're going to be alright. Promise me and then we’ll go home.”

 

Wyatt coughed a wet cough and Lucy barely moved. Rufus looked over her shoulder and saw Wyatts head nod jerkily. 

 

“I pro-” A shuddered breath. “I promise.”

 

Lucy turned to Rufus, “We need to go, we’ve done all we can here.”

 

Rufus nodded and watched as Lucy repositioned herself, a hand under Wyatt’s back and another under his shoulder. Rufus joined her on the other side.  “Ready?”. 

 

Together they pushed Wyatt into a sitting position. Rufus could see more tears rush down Lucy's cheeks as Wyatt cried out, the agonized keening amplified by the clearing. Lucy shushed Wyatt gently as Rufus felt his own stomach clench at the tear that rolled down Wyatt's face. 

 

With some effort, and a near miracle, the pair were able to drag Wyatt to his feet. It didn't help any that Wyatt was unable to put one foot in front of the other, much less exert any energy into the task. Rufus wished he didn't, but knew from personal experience that it was taking everything Wyatt had in him to stay conscious. He wasn’t past the point of stoicism though; the only noises he would make were at any jostling movements. Rufus and Lucy figured that out pretty quick and were quick to try and glide as smoothly as possible the few feet to the lifeboat.

 

Looking up at the entrance of the machine, Rufus was suddenly unsure of how they we're going to be able to lift Wyatt into the boat. They figured it out though. Rufus climbed inside first, Wyatt using Lucy and the lifeboat to support his weight. Rufus was quick to notice the sweat that had appeared on Wyatt's brow. He knew shock was a very real risk at this point, but it wasn't like he had the option to throw Wyatt's feet above his head. 

 

Once in the machine, Rufus cuffed a foot around Lucy's chair then reached out and down, looping his hands underneath Wyatt's sagging shoulders. With Lucy's help, the pair hoisted Wyatt into the boat and into his seat, but the task took its toll on  Wyatt. By the time Lucy was buckling the injured man into his seat, not unlike what he had done for her in the past, Wyatt's teeth were chattering and his eyes were squeezed shut. A few more cries had been elicited and Rufus was trying to do anything but think of those noises. Feeling like he was to blame for his friend’s pain didn't help either. 

 

Leaving Lucy to finish strapping Wyatt in, Rufus began to prepare for the jump in time and was praying to gods he didn't even believe in that Wyatt would make it to the present. Because Rufus could rationalize Wyatt's survival as long as they made it to the present. Where technology would just stitch him up and he would be fine. Wyatt would be fine. He would be fine. He would be -

 

A cry filled the small space as Rufus recognized the sound of the seat belt being tightened and Lucy apologizing repeatedly under her breath. Suddenly the cabin was silent, the only noises filling the space Wyatt's gurgling breath. 

 

“Lucy buckle up! We are out of time!” Rufus shouted, and shoved his own straps into whatever holes they needed to go into. 

 

He was waiting for her call, waiting, waiting waiting. Precious seconds ticked by in his head as he listened intently for the final sound of that last buckle clicking into place and timing the seconds between each breath that filled the cabin. 

 

“Go Rufus, now!”

 

He didn't have to be told twice, as he slammed his hands on the levers and buttons and switches that would sling them forward into the present. 

 

And then they were there. 

 

Rufus fumbled with his buckles as soon as he felt the lifeboat powering down, his senses slowly coming back to him after the jump. Wyatt's raspy breaths still filled the cabin, but lighter than before. It only took seconds for the rest of his senses to return, and a few moments after that, the door opened and Denise’s worried face peered in. Rufus glanced from her face to Wyatt’s. 

 

The man hardly looked human, his breaths sluggishly moving his chest up and down, his head rising and falling with his chin lying against his torso. He was … Rufus couldn't think of a good term to accurately describe the color, or maybe the lack of it, of his friend. He looked dead. His fingernails had turned blue. If Rufus could see his lips, he would assume the same was for those as well. 

 

Denise pulled a walkie talkie out of nowhere and was yelling instructions into it, calling for a medical team or something. Or at least, that’s what Rufus really hoped she was doing. 

 

Rufus just wasn't sure how long Wyatt could wait for them. “Help us get him out of here!” Rufus shouted over the yells. 

 

Jiya’s head appeared behind Denise’s and suddenly paled, but Rufus didn't have time to think about anyone's mental state. The only state he was worried about was Wyatt's physical state. Because, without a physical state, there was no mental state to fix later, and if Wyatt wasn't around later, then it would be all Rufus’s fault and Rufus didn't need that on his shoulders.  And to be quite honest, Rufus didn't want to lose one of the closest friends he had.

 

_ No, Wyatt would live. They were back in the present with technology and modern medicine and if Wyatt didn't survive now than maybe he was _ \- Rufus stopped that train of thought, because no matter what happened next, Wyatt deserved to live. 

 

Between the four of them, they were able to extricate an unconsious Wyatt from the time machine. All with only a few groans from Wyatt, the man never rousing. 

 

Lucy walked a few steps ahead and cleared off one of the tables that looked sturdy enough to hold Wyatt's weight. With one swipe of her arm, everything previously on the table tumbled and scattered to the floor. Jiya, Denise, and Rufus carefully laid Wyatt down and Lucy took guard near his head, running her own blood stained fingers through his hair. 

 

“What happened?” Jiya asked, pulling Rufus from his thoughts. 

 

“I don't know! I just- I don't know. One moment we were walking and then the next Wyatt was bleeding out on the ground,” Lucy explained, brushing her thumb over Wyatt's cheek. The group watched on as Denise inspected the wounds and the bandages. 

 

“These are gunshot wounds?” Denise asked, pressing her hands against the gauze at Wyatt's side, the wound having bled through the bandages.

 

“Yes, it was a trap of some sort. We hadn't been there for more than five minutes before everything happened,” Rufus muttered. He could tell that Jiya was torn between helping Denise and comforting Rufus. 

 

It didn't take long for her to make her decision as Denise cursed. “He's coming around.” 

 

Jiya and Rufus both rushed to Wyatt's side as he began thrashing around on the table. “How long until a medical team gets here?” Jiya asked, grabbing Wyatt's left arm and holding it down while Rufus went for the right. 

 

Denise continued to minister her attention to the wounds while keeping a wary eye on Wyatt's thrashing legs. She shook her head, “I have a pair of paramedics on retainer for instances like this, so they're on their way over from one of the bases nearby, but I don't know if they’ll get here in time.”

 

Lucy was still quiet down at Wyatt's head, her hands had stopped comforting and had instead moved to restrain his head. One hand held his head down against the table, the other held his head as straight as possible.  

 

Denise took a second, maybe even less than that to look at each of them, one at a time. “Don't forget for a second that he's a highly trained soldier, hold him down and hold him tight. Him moving around will only serve to injure him-”

 

A guttural cry filled the room as Wyatt arched his back beneath Denise's hands. Rufus looked to his face, and saw his eyes wide open, not focusing on any one thing as he began to struggle. His arms began to flail wildly and his legs kicked out. Rufus’s lapse in attention resulted in Wyatt's arms slipping free from Rufus’s hands. In that moment, the arm swung upwards and caught Rufus in the jaw, sending him falling back against a second table. 

 

“Rufus!” Jiya’s yell was hardly heard over the broken yells sounding from the table. Rufus didn't feel any pain as he jumped back to his feet and looked his girlfriend in the eyes, trying to prove that he was ok when he clearly was not. 

 

None of this was ok. 

 

Rufus grabbed for Wyatt’s armagain and Denise shot him a quick look before turning to Wyatt face. She let go of the arm that she had grabbed in Rufus’s brief absence, as the man began to hold tightly to it again. “Wyatt!”

 

Wyatt showed no signs of having heard his name as tears streamed down his cheeks. Rufus glanced at the bandages on his side and then on his chest. Neither looked like they were withstanding the struggles of the soldier. The wound in his side was bleeding through the bandages and beginning to pool and smear on the table below him as he struggled. 

 

Lucy's shout of Wyatt's name, and the sudden cease of movement had Rufus’s attention drawn back to the head of the table. Wyatt was staring up into Lucy's eyes, his eyes wide and Rufus could swear he could see fear in them. 

 

“Wyatt, it's me. It's Lucy. I'm right here honey, I'm right here.” But with the fear, Rufus was also relieved to see comprehension. 

 

“Lucy?” 

 

“Yeah, it's me. And Rufus is here, and Jiya and Agent Christopher. We’re just trying to help you.” Denise shifted away from the head of the table silently, and returned to Wyatts side. Rufus could tell the exact moment that she resumed with the pressure against the bloody wound; a soft cry escaped from Wyatt's gritted teeth. 

 

“Ru-rufus?”

 

Rufus leaned over and placed a hand lightly on Wyatt's shoulder, shuddering at how clammy the bare skin beneath his fingertips felt. “Right here buddy. Don't think I was gonna let you get away with saving my life without me thanking you for it.”

 

A grim grin appeared for a second on Wyatt's face, revealing teeth coated in blood. Rufus tried to smile back, but couldn't. He didn't have it in him. “It's alright though, because you punched me in the face for it, so we’re probably even.” 

 

That one cracked a bit of a genuine smile from Wyatt's lips. The injured man brought the hand that Jiya had been holding, and placed it on Lucy's which was stroking his cheek, holding on to it as best as he could, his chest puttering up in down as he focused solely on her touch and his breathing. He kept his eyes on Lucy, using her as the one thing that was grounding him. 

 

Rufus looked around the room,  trying to find the one thing that would ground him before he got sick. The blood and stress, and just the entire situation were starting to wear on his nerves. So he looked to Denise, who seemed to be wearing more blood than what was left in Wyatt's body.  That wasn't helping so then he turned instead to Jiya, who looked like she was in the same mental state as he was. She smiled at him though, a genuine smile that only seemed to make everything he was feeling magnify. It was enough to make him crumble. And he almost did.  But then a hand rested on his. It was Wyatt's own bloody one. 

 

Rufus’s gaze settled on his friend’s bare chest. It was smeared with blood and the bandage that continued to rise and fall with every breath was saturated in it. The fluttering plastic and Wyatt's own hand on his did more for him than anything else could. 

 

Wyatt was the one bleeding out before him and he was still doing everything he could to make sure his teammates were ok.  _ Go figure. _

 

Rufus didn't notice when the hand went slack and fell from his. He hardly heard Lucy's pleads to Wyatt to stay with her. He didn't hear the medics demanding him to step away. He didn't feel Jiya pull him back, and he didn’t feel her wrap him in a hug until the plastic on Wyatt's chest stopped moving. 

 

Suddenly, he was on his knees, and Jiya was rubbing circles in his back as he sobbed into her chest. 

 

He didn't even hear the stretcher disappear down the corridor. 

 

* **_Timeless*_ **

 

And here he was, sitting on Wyatt's bed, Lucy and Jiya both at his sides. They didn't dare move, instead they all kept their eyes on the cell phone that he was gripping tightly in his hands. 

 

Jiya swore that his hands were clean. That there wasn't any blood left on his body anywhere. The clothes that had been on him had been thrown away into the same garbage bags as Lucy's. Jiya was going to try and clean her jeans and t-shirt, there hadn't been as much blood on her clothing as theirs. They had each spent a significant amount of time trying to clean up themselves, but Rufus still wasn't certain he had scrubbed every inch of himself. 

 

If he looked hard enough he could see the blood that had dried under his fingernails. Blood that blended into his skin like it was a part of him. Part of him appreciated the poetry of the notion that Wyatts blood was now apart of him. The other part of him was really considering bleaching his hands. Maybe then his hands would be clean of Wyatts blood. Maybe-

 

The phone in his hand vibrated to life, the LED lighting up to display ‘A. Christopher’ spelled out across the screen, giving him the option to either answer the call or avoid it. Sucking in a deep breath, and after a squeeze of the thigh from Jiya, Rufus swiped to answer the phone, immediately placing it on speaker. 

 

The bunkers end of the call was silent.  The group could hear the hospital pagers on the other end and the sound of Denise breathing into the microphone. “Rufus?” 

 

“Yea?” Rufus was surprised to hear his voice was gravelly and raised an octave, but stress and disuse affected others in different ways. 

 

“Is everybody there?” Rufus could feel his heart begin to flutter in his chest as Lucy and Jiya both chimed in. He grabbed both of their hands in his and squeezed, waiting to hear word.

 

“Is he alive?” Lucy asked. Rufus didn't have to look to see the tears streaming down her face.

 

A moment of silence, and then, “Sorry, I didn’t catch that, the reception is terrible, but Wyatt’s just come out of surgery.” Rufus’s stomach nearly jumped into his throat.  _ Wyatt was alive!  _ “There will be a lengthy recovery period, but doctors are almost certain that barring any complications, he’ll make a full recovery.”

 

Rufus was so happy, he felt like he could pass out. He was almost certain that he might have to. 

 

“The doctor said that despite the severity of the injuries, the immediate medical attention he received right after he was shot is probably what saved his life. Congratulations Lucy, Rufus. Wyatt owes you one.” Rufus couldn’t think of any words to say, so instead he turned to Jiya and threw his head into the nape of her neck, refusing to acknowledge the tears streaming down his own face.

 

“I don't think it makes up for all the times he’s saved us,” Lucy said after a few moments, clutching Rufus’s hand tightly in her lap. 

 

“Be that as it may, great job today, everyone. Now get some rest, i'm going to go sit with Wyatt.” She ended the call, as curt as ever, but Rufus couldn't help but smile. 

 

His hands were still shaking, but maybe that just meant he needed to get some sleep Now that he didn't have to worry about the death of a teammate, a nap sounded like a marvelous idea. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Ta da. 
> 
> So yea, I hope you enjoyed and would love to hear from you!


End file.
